Huntsman will run for Pres on Ryan's Road to Ruin

There's always that 2 per cent that didn't get the word, the Marine Corps used to say.

How else to explain Jon Huntsman, who enters the GOP predidential race today as the biggest Ryan budget backer in the field?

Talking Points Memo:

The committed moderate and former Obama administration ambassador to China kicks off his campaign today, and according to previews, he plans to make strong support for Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-WI) proposal to end Medicare as we know it a key component of his kick off speech.

Politico's Mike Allen spilled the beans about Huntsman's Reagan-themed kickoff in Jersey City, NJ.

"Huntsman will lean into his support for the Ryan budget, and will say that defense spending should be on the table, including base closures," Allen reports. He writes the opening week of Huntsman 2012 will include taking on Obama over foreign policy, too, specifically, "his contention that Obama's plan for getting out of Afghanistan is too slow, and that intervening in Libya was not in our national interest."

Huntsman was one of the first to wrap both hands around Ryan budget, telling ABC a couple weeks ago that he'd vote for the Medicare changes contained in it if he got the chance.

He was non-commital about the Ryan plan in May, basically saying, Well, it's an idea," but he has warmed to it considerably since then.

This at the same time a Florida Tea Partier is warning the GOP will lose if they stick with Ryan's plan, and polls show voters are set against it.

Go figure.

Huntsman on Ryan budget: Well, it's an idea

Jon Huntsman, the latest Republican to consider a presidential run, was asked in New Hampshire about the House budget advanced by Rep. Paul Ryan -- the issue that got Newt Gingrich into such hot water. Huntsman was didiplomatic (being a diplomat) but this doesn't sound like an endorsement of Ryan's plan, which Gingrich called radical:

"The way we do it in America, we put ideas on the table, we discuss them," [Huntsman] said. " There is a lot that is part of the Ryan plan that needs to be considered."

When pressed, he didn't endorse Ryan's proposal to turn Medicare into a voucher system, but said "that is something like (what) we set up in Utah, where you've got a multiplicity of insurance options." Turning Medicaid into block grants for states "is a good thing, because right now Medicaid is blowing a hole in budgets throughout the United States."

Huntsman is a former Utah governor. More here.